So, you're running a bit hot

I found a ncie application, called Speedfan. It allows you to see what all the thermistors are sensing, so you get a nice easy to see look at how hot your processor cores and GPU are.

I had noticed that my GPU (Nvidia 9800M GS) was running on average 70 degrees simply sitting still. Got as high as 95 more than a few times, usually during gaming. Thinking that being plugged into an external monitor was putting more thermal strain on the video card, I switched over to built-in mode and saw no change on the temperatures.

So, I set about seeing if the little round grille on the bottom was clogged. Took the cover off, and found that the little round grille is purely decorative. IT GOES NOWHERE. The bottom panel is solid plastic there.

Seriously, ASUS, would it have killed you to actually make the grille functional?

I took the little chrome-looking bezel off, and ripped out the plastic circle plate thing that was on the inside of the cover - I still have a solid plastic shell between my heatsink fan and the outside world, but the removal of the plastic bezel did leave me with eight little holes. I looked into the heatsink fins (without removing the heatsink, I don't have any thermal paste!) and noted that there was a slight buildup of dust. I am now sitting at 58 degrees.

I plan on drilling/cutting/biting/punching/chewing a much larger hole so that the fan can get unimpeded airflow.

I'm also looking at making a cheapo USB-powered fan and sticking it under the laptop (I usually elevate it with toddler toy blocks) and seeing what that does.

Wow dude that sound like an awesome find. Hope the other Asus'ers pay you $20 for this mod to be done. I just gave you an ideer...

Well, if I can find some fans, I can gin up little cooling boxes for cheap. maybe I'll part out my old desktop for the case fan, but we're not ready to rip it to shreds just yet.

Here is an idea. Make an easier to remove bottom panel. No need unscrew anything. Then, make a cooling pad custom to your bottom internals that are exposed. Ultimate Chill Factor.

So, graft a cooling box or pad to my laptop...?

I still want the thing to be portable. Doing a case-mod will preclude that, as I won't be able to fit the thing into my laptop bag.

No, I'm aiming to make a box that I can set under the laptop that simply blows cool air up and into the laptop to assist in cooling. The other idea I had was putting a duct and fan on the outside right next to the exhaust grille, and sucking air out of the laptop, rather than pushing more air in. The airflow that comes out of it now even when the stock fan is going is weaksauce.

Just take the bottom panel off and stick a slab of ice underneath, good to go.

I've heard of folks doing that, but then I have a tub of water to dela with in about half an hour.

Laptops and heat go together like peas and carrots, don't you know...?

If you can't cook using your laptop, it's obviously not turned on.

While cooking....

On as in you're using it to reference receipes on the net?

Well yes most laptops get hot. If it has vents most people put a cooling pad underneath it.

Finally scored some thermal grease from Bestbuy, silver-based. It's not Arctic Silver 5, but since it's silver-based, should be superior to the three-year-old gunk I have on it now. And since I bounced off of 110-C last evening, I'm downing my laptop (once we get the Desktop finished) and cracking that open.

Crack it open you cracker. Haha. Hey I think I'll just stick with Macs from now on. Just stinks they are so much moolah.

Precisely why I don't buy them; I can barely afford to build a desktop, even with free used hardware for the build...

Also, Apple seriously considered withdrawing from EPEAT, a recycling environmental standard. I guess a lot of the enviromental Hipsters whined about it, so they went back to it.

More here: http://mashable.com/2012/07/13/apple-backs-down-on-environmental-standard/

The fact that they even considered dropping the standard boggles me.

Retina Macbook Pro is why. The way they made it there was no way for them to meet the EPAT standards, supposedly.

So anyway, noticed that i7 temps (sitting still) are about 40-celsius. I guess it's okay. That's with stock CPU fan and stock case fans. I have two spare case fans I can add on, since I wasn't able to get them to work well with USB 5volt power. Toss them in, plug them into the mobo, good to go. But only if I need to.

We'll see how it does running Minecraft.

Those temps are normal for i7. Try look up CPU temps for it.

Okay, so I redid the grease on my laptop. Ran Minecraft at full graphics, this would normally make my GPU pitch a fit before too long. Ran 75C all night, which is an improvement.

Will have to play around more before I call this a sucess or whatever.

Is not much of a success.

That or I just demand too much out of the thing.

Three months later, and once again, I'm running into that 105C barrier (when playing graphic intensive games) and it downclocks itself to compensate.

Enough is enough. Although I've gotten a solid 3 and a half years out of this computer, it's showing its age and is probably long due for a replacement.

Farewell, G50. You have served faithfully and with few complaints, but you are getting replaced with something far more modern: A G55.

I can now kiss my overheating problems goodbye.

The G50 will continue to soldier on in limited service, mostly in tasks that won't tax the video card as much. Or, I can finally say "screw it" and since it's not my MAIN machine, I can experiment.

Maybe another fan on the underside, somehow...